South Korean President Moon Jae-in cleared a top item off his bucket list on Thursday: Climbing Mt Paektu in North Korea with its leader Kim Jong Un. After the two leaders pledged new steps aimed at salvaging nuclear talks on Wednesday, Moon and Kim decided to use the final
South Korean President Moon Jae-in cleared a top item off his bucket list on Thursday: Climbing Mt Paektu in North Korea with its leader Kim Jong Un.
After the two leaders pledged new steps aimed at salvaging nuclear talks on Wednesday, Moon and Kim decided to use the final day of their three-day summit to go up the symbolic mountain on the Chinese border together.
Moon is known for his love of mountain climbing and has trekked in the Himalayas at least twice.
The president has long stated that visiting Mt Paektu, which can also be spelled Baekdu in the South and is known as Changbai in China, was a “long unfulfilled dream”.
“Many people in the South would go to Mt Paektu from the China side, but I decided not to, pledging myself that I would go stepping on our soil,” Moon told Kim after reaching the peak of the mountain. “But time flew so fast, and I thought my wish may not come true, but it did today.”
As Moon arrived at an airport near the mountain, some 1,000 North Koreans greeted him, waving flowers and chanting”Motherland! Unification!”
Moon and Kim took a cable car together to Heaven Lake, a caldera at the top of the mountain, and walked around the area with their wives and officials from both sides.
Pictures showed Moon and Kim smiling and posing with their wives, and Moon filling a bottle with water from the lake.
“The Chinese envy us because they can’t go down to the lake from their side but we can,” Kim said.
